5th and 6th Grade Teacher Guide

Ben Franklin Was Lucky!Materials:Students will need the circuits they made for the “Complete a Circuit” experiment,modified as shown in the illustration (strip a 1-inch section of insulation off the middle ofeach wire). Students will also need a 6-inch piece of thicker wire with one inch ofinsulation removed at each end.Safety First:• Students should be supervised by an adult while doing this experiment.• A teacher or another adult should be responsible for stripping insulation fromwires.• Remind students that they are able to work with these batteries and wires becausethe voltage is minimal (1.5 V per D-cell battery). They should never experimentwith the electricity that comes from a wall outlet. It’s much more powerful thanthe electricity made by small batteries and could seriously injure or even killsomeone.Objective:Students will be able to describe a short circuit and compare it to the story about BenFranklin.Getting it Across:1. Have students read the information and follow the steps on the page.2. Be sure students understand that they should immediately disconnect the thick wireand the battery after they observe what happens. The wires will get hot. This is a clueto why Franklin got shocked.Questions and Answers:• Students’ predictions and results will vary.• Why is this called a “short circuit”? (Because the electricity travels a shorter routethan the intended circuit. Electricity is not able to complete its intended path becausethe circuit is grounded somewhere.)• Why did Ben Franklin get shocked? (His arms functioned like the thick wire in theexperiment. Electricity traveled through his body instead of through the circuit, andhe got shocked.)